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Pat Cashman

The Vicksburg Post

Inducted June 24, 2011

Louis P. “Pat” Cashman is a fourth-generation newspaperman. He became publisher of his family-owned newspaper in 1987 and is a past president of MPA. He retired after selling The Vicksburg Post in 2012.

He is the first “third-generation” honoree in the MPA Hall of Fame. Cashman’s grandfather and father were inducted into the Hall in 1989 and 2002, respectively.

A 1969 graduate of St. Aloysius High School, Cashman graduated from Ole Miss four years later. He started at the family newspaper in Vicksburg in 1974 working various production jobs, including on the process camera and in the pressroom. He later worked in advertising sales before being named publisher upon the retirement of his father.

Cashman was nominated by Charlie Mitchell, assistant dean of the Meek School of Journalism and New Media at Ole Miss and former executive editor of The Post.

“It is one thing to inherit a family business and sustain it,” Mitchell wrote in his nomination letter. “It’s quite another to manage the firm effectively, accepting leadership roles in the industry and in the commercial, social and spiritual life of the community.”

Mitchell credited his former boss with asserting The Post’s leadership position within the community.

“A full, regular editorial page with commentaries that sometimes take unpopular positions has been a part of this,” he wrote. “It’s not The Post’s role to establish the quality of life in the community, in (Cashman’s) view, but it is The Post’s role to supply interested readers with sufficient and balanced news and information so that they may more effectively establish and define the community where they live.”

Retired Vicksburg Post general manager Otis Headley said he grew to appreciate Cashman’s “dedication and leadership to his management staff and employees” during Headley’s 25-year tenure at the paper.

“Employee welfare was a priority to make their experience at The Post positive for them and their families,” Headley wrote in a letter to the selection committee. “He encouraged participation in community activities, sponsored company softball and bowling teams, flu shots and contributed to the cost of education of employees who desired to improve their skills.”

Cashman is married to the former Barbara Millsaps of West Point. They have two children, Amanda Kathleen and John Gordon.

“In ways large and small – but rarely obvious – Pat Cashman has elevated the newspaper industry in Mississippi, building strongly on the foundation established by this father, grandfather and great-grandfather,” Mitchell concluded.